(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circular type cartridge enabling centrifugation and a modular automatic analyzer using the same, and more particularly, to a circular type cartridge enabling centrifugation, in which red blood cells and plasma separated from whole blood by using the circular type cartridge are used, and as a result, a separate input by an inspector is not required, measurement accuracy may be improved, design becomes compact and optimized such that a plurality of modular automatic analyzers may be combined and expanded in a modular manner, and diagnosis of various items or various diseases may be performed for a minimum period of time, and a modular automatic analyzer using the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
An automatic analyzer in the related art, which measures components in biological samples such as blood samples or urine samples, mainly measures biochemical items such as enzymes. However, recently, the automatic analyzer increasingly measures immunological items such as hormones or tumor markers. In general, a biochemical automatic analyzer measures test substances by means of transmitted light or scattered light by using a change in light absorbance of a reaction liquid caused by a biochemical reaction in blood samples.
Meanwhile, a seroimmunity analyzer for immunological items measures a test substance such as hormones in biological substances with high sensitivity by immunologically reacting and binding a labelled antibody or a labelled antigen, in which an antibody or an antigen, which specifically binds to each test substance prepared as a reagent and, with a fluorescent dye or the like, to the test substance in the sample, performing B/F separation, and heterogeneously detecting the labelled antibody or the labelled antigen.
Here, the B/F separation means that binding components (bind B), which are subjected to the analysis, and free components (free F), which are not subjected to the analysis, are separated.
Recently, the necessity of measuring the same specimen for a plurality of immunological items as well as the biochemical items is increased.
For example, in some instances, it is necessary to simultaneously diagnose cancer and cardiac diseases, or it is necessary to simultaneously measure both of the biochemical item and the immunological item for the purpose of accuracy when testing a thyroid gland function.
However, in the case of the automatic analyzer in the related art, it is necessary to complete the measurement by using the seroimmunity analyzer with a linear cartridge structure and then measure the specimen again by using the biochemical automatic analyzer, or it is necessary to complete the measurement by using the biochemical automatic analyzer and then measure the specimen again by using the seroimmunity analyzer.
In addition, in most instances, a test result obtained by a single automatic analyzer is insufficient to obtain a precise result.
In particular, presently, immunity equipment for diagnosing cardiovascular vessels has a function of simultaneously diagnosing six channels, but there is a drawback in that the equipment cannot be used during the test, and it is necessary to individually and simultaneously perform the tests when emergency patients are simultaneously hospitalized. Therefore, multi-channel analysis functions, which may be individually operated, are required for the automatic analyzer used under an emergency environment.
However, in this case, in a case in which multiple automatic analyzers are used in the related art, there is a problem in that an overall size is too large.
In addition, the immunity measurement equipment measures a particular biomarker protein concentration in human plasma or serum, and in this case, it is not necessary to correct measured concentration when the plasma or the serum is directly used as a measurement sample, but it is necessary to correct a measured concentration by using a volume ratio of red blood cells in the sample when whole blood is used.
Therefore, in the case of most existing equipment, a volume ratio of red blood cells, which is separately measured at the outside, and a type of sample (whole blood/plasma/serum) needs to be inputted to the equipment.
That is, in the case of most of the automatic analyzers the related art, it is necessary to use the red blood cells and the plasma which are separated from the whole blood in advance, or it is necessary to input a numerical value of red blood cells of a subject into the automatic analyzer, and as a result, there is a problem in that inconvenience is caused and test accuracy deteriorates in some instances.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.